The Cradle
"I shall tell you my friends, that never before on the face of this planet, has an empire grown to be so large, a culture more expansive. And never before, would have anyone thought this would have been achieved by mere humans!" ---- Consisting of 14 different Principalities; the Cradle Empire was once a shining bastion of culture and human power, was crushed during the Scourge of the Grey king. Now with the scourge over, all that remains are the few major cities and villages lucky enough, unimportant enough, or strong enough to survive the Scourge of the Grey king. The eastern states fell more heavily under the heel of the Grey King, while the western states became ransacked by monsters and wild men, taking advantage of the chaos sewn by the occasional pirate raid. As such, both sides of the empire, separated by the Bielen Straight, felt the war in different ways, which lends to the feeling of division currently felt within the empire. As such, now civilization consists of the capitol cities of each Principality, and a few of their subordinate villages and cities, linked by a series of blessed roads, to "ensure safe travel". There are many dark roads, their blessings faded, long go left unpatrolled, and sometimes these roads lead to lost cities and villages, some lost for over hundreads of years. These villages can be homes to bandits, devoid of all life, or even converted to some horrid cult. Not every village is friendly, not every road is mapped. But the safe roads are all heavily taxed, and the accepting villages usually have really big walls. 'Principalities; 'Albatiia Bectin Crangnia Daelought Deinksvund Eirebenacht E'Trina Hirvatyknia Illios donnix Lo Biele Matinska Norswenark Porta Shavizunark =Industry= Farmers often own their land, pay taxes, and then sell their product to each other and to cities. The cities, usually presided over by a count appointed from the populous by the duke, control salvage, mining, logging and fishing permits of their regions. This money is then used to fund public works and subsidize trade and food production for the community. The most prevalent industry in the Cradle is farming, with over 45% of the population devoted towards it. Farmers usually bring their wares to the hamlets and villages they cluster around, where their goods are sold to merchants who then re-sell the good to major cities. The merchants are mere middle men in this case, they are skilled warriors hired to protect the vital caravans from brigands, monsters and other such horrors which stalk the roads. The same such system applies to other resources, miners work for merchants who then sell their ores to foundries and blacksmiths, woodsmen and lumberjacks work for logging companies, which then sell their wares to carpenters and construction guilds. All of which are located inside cities. Thus the nature of industry in the cradle is for resources to be gathered in the hinterland, and then transplanted into the urban core. The urban cores then provide protection and manufactured goods for the hinterland settlements. Farmers and other hinterland workers tend to be rather wealthy, as the demand for food and resources is very high, and rely on slave labour for the bulk of their work force. The slaves are usually criminals who are working off time, or indebted peoples working off their debt. These slaves rarely flee, as they know that traveling away form these settlements alone would most likely result in their death, as roads are dangerous for those who travel alone. =Government and Politics= Before Unification was established The empire was actually a large taxation system originally developed by the Bectin Principality, wherein all tribute states paid tribute to the emperor in exchange for a safe road system on which to trade goods, however, over time, the empire began to mean somthing much more. The hight of power for the Cradle Empire was shortly before the Scourge of the Grey king, when cities and villages of great number were commonplace throughout every Principality. The Emperor The Structure All of the principalities share a constant system of organization which was established under the Unified Empire. The standard Politcal system is as follows, with exceptions provided below. Each town is ruled by a baron, who is elected by the populus. Each Baron must be literate, and have proficencies in either magical or martial arts. From these barons, a count is appointed by the duke to oversee the organization of three or more villages and maintain resouce production. A Viscount is only appointed to maintain a section of a Large city, or to help organise two villages. A Duke is appointed by the Prince, usually from the heirs of the privious Duke, The dukes are responsible for the Over seeing of large tracts of land, and depending on size, may have several counts under their peerage. While all counts are beholden to a Duke, not all Dukes have Counts under their command, as the populion of the dukes territory may not be worthy of such extensive peerage. Lastly, there are the Arch-Dukes, who reside over annexed countries on behalf of the Prince. Lastly, there are the Princes, who have their appointments by heriditary right. If a prince fails to produce an heir, the Emporer will select the new prince from amung the dukes. Execptions The exceptions to the system above, is Crangnia, and Deinksvund In the case of Crangnia. Only magic users may become nobility, and the Prince of Duke may select whom ever they wish to the level of count, they need not be elected baron first. Also, Crangnia Does not use the term Duke, or Prince. Instead, the terms Archmage and Primemage respectively. In Deinksvund, Counts are appointed by the Duke and do not need to be elected as barons first. =Power Groups= The Adventurer's Guild exists throughout the "civilized reigions of the Empire, and most Principalities require a person to have an adventuring licence from the Adventurer's Guild before you can legally take "Adventuring" type jobs. The Collage of Mages monitors and polices all Arcane magic use in the Empire. One must obtain a license from them in order to legally cast spells within the boarders of the Empire Royal Guilds extist throughout the empire, being guilds that have power throughout the Cradle, but are sponsoured by a specific Principality Nobility The aristocracy is generally incharge of administering to the operation of a principality and the royal guilds. The lower levels of the nobility, such as the Counts and Barons are selcted from the commoner populous. However all Nobles must be literate and skilled in either magical or martial combat. Royal Guilds The World of Tellic